Dead Apostle

Dead Apostles (死徒, Shito?) are humans that became vampires either by the use of Magecraft (like Nrvnqsr Chaos, though this kind is rare) or by the actions of another vampire of similar nature (in this case, either a True Ancestor or another Dead Apostle). Among the creatures that fall under the vampire category, they are the most numerous. The main targets of the Executors of the Burial Agency, an organization created for the purpose of stopping the spreading of the heresy known as vampires by exterminating the Dead Apostles and sealing The Twenty-seven Dead Apostle Ancestors.[1][2]

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The original members of this kind of vampire were created to act as counter-measures in the case of a True Ancestor being overwhelmed by his or her thirst for blood. In exchange for losing their free will and becoming a tool to relieve the vampiric impulses of the True Ancestors, these individuals were granted powers and longevity similar to their masters. However, what they received was still a flawed form of immortality and it was soon discovered that they needed to suck the blood of others to survive. Just like the True Ancestors, these vampires have the instinct known as Vampiric Impulses (吸血衝動, kyuuketsu shoudou?),[3] which pushes them to suck the blood of others. But differently than the vampiric impulses of the True Ancestors, they have the physical need to suck the blood of others in order to maintain their own bodies. For those Dead Apostles who used to be human, it is something not entirely dissimilar from an expression of love.

The result of repeatedly sucking the blood of humans was the emergence of a sense of superiority in the heart of the servants of the True Ancestors. Such a thing eventually gave birth to a feeling of rebellion towards their masters, which then lead the servants to find ways of strengthening their mental control and escaping from the domain of the True Ancestors. After the rebellion, these blood-sucking humans became known as the Dead Apostles.

Although the Dead Apostles are maverick and individualistic by nature, there is a form of ruling body among them: The Twenty-seven Dead Apostle Ancestors. At first a group formed only by the original Dead Apostles who escaped from the True Ancestors, today however it is more of a collection of very odd, but powerful bloodsucking characters who are divided into multiple rival factions. Most of the original Dead Apostles were destroyed along the generations or sealed away by the Church. Afterward, their seats among the 27 Ancestors were either left empty or filled by somewhat suitable replacements. On a side note, those sealed away are actually just placed into eternal imprisonment inside special coffins, for the Church lacks the means to definitely destroy them. Meanwhile, some of the factions of minions of those sealed Ancestors still remain and are slowly gaining power to either free their masters or destroy them. There are two primary factions that divide the Apostles, there are those who follow the formal King of the Dead Apostles, Trhvmn Ortenrosse, and those who follow the Princess of the Dead Apostles, Altrouge Brunestud.

For the Apostles amusement is the same as breathing. For those who were once human and achieved imperfect immortality, boredom is their greatest enemy. As soon as someone realizes they have no value---that their life is stopped, then their meaning of existence disappears too. So they started to wear down and to counter this they started to create their own amusement.

The Apostles began a game of conquest and saw themselves as lords of a castle expanding their territories. Additionally, Ortenrosse suggested a game of hunting the remaining True Ancestors. The Apostles find territorial wars and power struggles within their own factions entertaining and, for their own enjoyment, they place their own blood inside the humans they preyed upon. These corpses go through the Growth Process to become Vampires and eventually kill their parent Vampire in order to become new Dead Apostles themselves. For the Dead Apostles, killing another Dead Apostle is not something, for the overall number of vampires doesn't change. However, those Apostles, like Enhance who want to destroy the existence of all vampires, in a manner similar to vampire hunters, become unforgivable traitors. Should a Dead Apostle be killed then all of its children vampires should die as well, but those who are treated as successors can live on even after the parent's death. The area needs investigation even after the parent is exterminated, and the real job of purification only begins after that point.

The Apostles, however, try to maintain the balance between society and themselves. They exploit humans in secret, for no other reason than self-preservation. They don't want it to be known that vampires exist at all and to protect their own lives, they hide the bodies of their victims, expand their territory and use various magical techniques to make things appear not out of the ordinary. But there were also Dead Apostles, like Einnashe, with values unchanged since the Middle Ages and sucked blood with reckless abundance. Then Aged Apostles set their own rules and by abiding by them enjoy bloodsucking as entertainment. Most of the long-lived Apostles don't use their names from their human lives anymore. And they don't make up a new name for themselves, but the Church assigns them one. They add on names as they find new, special characteristics of the vampire so some of them have names as long as spells.

The common goal of all Dead Apostles is to achieve perfect immortality, who does not rely on the ingestion of blood. There exist a variety of approaches of Apostles who tried to achieve it but no one has succeeded yet. It could be said that another goal of all Dead Apostles is becoming an Ancestor. Even those Dead Apostles at the very bottom, who were changed into vampires by lowly Dead Apostles with no standing or reputation, dream of one day being able to gather enough power to become one of the 27 themselves.

Although they appear to have capacities beyond human limitations, most vampires actually acquired their powers by constantly refining human-inherent abilities throughout their extended lives. They also show signs of Mystery which accumulates over time and grows stronger with age. In other words, anyone with a similarly long lifespan has the potential to reach a level comparable to the Dead Apostles. Also, contrary to popular belief, vampires can be killed with conventional weaponry. However, that is a feat near impossible to accomplish since their superior reflexes and physical abilities allow them to see and dodge a bullet after it has been shot. They can gain these inhuman physical abilities because their hands and feet are not connected by nerves, as the only thing that connects a vampires body together is the blood of others. They also gain vampire claws with senses keener than those of a human. Then as long as you are human, you can't deceive the vampires sense of smell or their sense of taste who can even detect alcohol in the blood of their victims. They are also able, through their long life and training their abilities or by finishing their magical research, to develop their own 'special abilities'. An example would be that some vampires can change their bodies freely so that you cannot rely on appearance to identify them. Gransurg Blackmore has the ability to change his shape into a large bird several kilometers in size and transforming his minions into hybrids with the heads and wings of birds or Michael Roa Valdamjong who altered his soul and attained the Magecraft of reincarnation. Incidentally, the top 10 Dead Apostle Ancestors can no longer be killed by ordinary means. Having lived in Mystery for so long, the only way to defeat them is through an even greater Mystery. Most Ancestors are also able to utilize Reality Marbles.

However, the downside of acquiring a power that humans originally would not have is that the genes that compose their bodies are constantly degenerating and once they die they won't leave a trace as their bodies turn into ash. The only way to interrupt and reverse this degeneration, even if just temporarily, is by regularly ingesting the blood of living creatures in order to absorb genetic informations and stabilize their own bodies. On that note, even though human blood and especially the blood of virgins, because one's blood cells are more pure before one has exchanged bodily fluids with others, are the most suited to the needs of the vampires, the blood of animals is a viable alternative. Due to their advanced age, Dead Apostles that have lived for at least one thousand years require enormous amounts of energy. Rather than a measure of their power, it is instead because compensation is needed for the maintenance of such a long-lived existence. One such Dead Apostle, Nrvnqsr Chaos, has colossal meals including over one hundred people in ten minutes.[4] Basically, there are a few "weaknesses" common to all Dead Apostles which are sunlight that greatly hastens their bodies' degeneration and running water. But powerful Apostles are capable of conquering the sunlight and move around during the day, and any Apostle can use the advances of technology like a plane or a ship for their advantage. On the other hand, the Executors of the Church who possess holy sacraments and other holy weapons are a great threat to them.

On the issue of the actual bloodsucking process, a vampire can either hunt prey himself or acquire the blood indirectly through the use of familiars. The actual bloodsucking process is described as if, all the life in the body is liquified and sucked out, the consciousness of the victim is being destroyed. A victim that gets all of his blood sucked dies and becomes all shriveled up like a mummy. A vampire can then intentionally skip the process of becoming a vampire by turning the dead body into its familiar. Although The Dead are the traditional familiars of the vampires, few actually use them today since their presence will alert vampire hunters such as the Burial Agency. Thus, the use of familiars from different species is somewhat more widespread. These familiars are created when a vampire feeds his blood to a living creature. These creatures cannot disobey their master and nor can they hide their thoughts, as the vampire can now read their mind. For a Dead Apostle living a long time and stabilizing his body with normal lives is not sufficient, so it's more effective to repair one's body by absorbing beasts, as they surpass the human species in this respect. By pushing his capacities to their limits, a Dead Apostle can possess either about 30 animals of the same species or one member of the Phantasmal Species that belongs to the Monstrous Beast or Phantasmal Beast-class as familiars. Stronger Dead Apostles were known to have used familiars of different animal species simultaneously, showing that the strength of the user's willpower is apart from others. Those Apostles who repair their own bodies with beasts can return them to their previous forms and use them as familiars when they need to.

Dead Apostles have regenerative powers which do not simply heal, but cause their bodies to turn their time backwards to a point in which they were unharmed; thus, you cannot cause wounds greater than the speed of their recovery. They also can "deny" the power of Noble Phantasms made by man or those the gods prepared for man, rendering them useless. Such a compatibility advantage comes only against humans wielding such weapons. Most of the older and more powerful Dead Apostles possess the Mystic Eyes of Enchantment, which are capable of high-level hypnosis. People are enchanted when they look at the vampire's eyes at the time this ability is executed. Yet there are many Apostles who possess other types of Mystic Eyes or use words in order to enchant others. Some Dead Apostles are also known for transferring their consciousness into from them created spare bodies or into The Dead to acquire information from a different perspective. Once it has served its purpose, they cut the magical energy flow and it returns to dust, which gives them the impression of turning into mist. The powers of the blood, shared by relatives of Dead Apostles, would exponentially increase when fighting together, since their powers are not calculated by addition but by multiplication. Additionally, since they are related with the moon, the lunar cycle over the Earth has effects on them. Granting to them more power than their normal estate is depending on the lunar cycle.

When creating their lairs, they make layers of Bounded Fields to form Territorial Fields (領地田畑, ryoudo tahata?). This invisible protection is similar to the ones that hide away the world of the fairies, which fool even nature itself. The lair is accessible only by those who are invited in, and they are difficult to invade, taking even the trained magi of the Mage's Association several years to find one. These lairs are enshrouded by darkness, by shadows, by longing for rationally, and by fear towards the taboo, so they cannot be found by humans.

If a vampire injects some of its own black blood into a human victim’s bloodstream, the said victim will be infused with some of the vampire’s own power and their body becomes unable to completely die. The black blood violates and burns the whole body from the inside. But in most cases however, the body dies and with it, the soul of the victim. The final result would be a mindless familiar known as The Dead. But in the rare occurrence of the said victim possessing an high physical potential and the capacity of their soul is excellent, it prevents the body and with it the soul from dying. He will instead become a Ghoul and embark on climbing the ladder to becoming a full-fledged Dead Apostle[5]. Furthermore, the extension of its powers is dependent on the abilities and amount of minions pertaining to its parent vampire, whom it is bound, both mentally and spiritually.

Ghoul (食屍鬼, Shokushiki?, Corpse-Eating Demon). They are born, when the body of a vampire's victim is unable to completely die. After, their corpse is buried and left for several years in the grave, their brain will rot and the human soul will be freed from the cage of the body. The decayed corpse now begins activity as a kind of living dead called a Ghoul. Their transformed souls, have now bypassed the necessity of the brain to hold the soul, as the soul is now separate from the body. They have mental capacities pretty much equivalent to that of a savage beast and they must devour other corpses to reconstruct their own degenerated flesh. After many years of this they restore their bodies and thus, their brain, which now anchors their soul again to the body. The soul can now reshape itself with the brain and the body and they fully recover their intelligence and memories.

Vampire (吸血鬼, Kyūketsuki?, Blood-Sucking Demon). After several years of development, a Ghoul regains all of its memories and a full human intellect. They finally become mature Vampires who can now attain power of their own, move by their own will, capable of creating other vampires and having their own minions. It takes decades, of acclimating to life in the darkness, to complete this Growth Process. Satsuki Yumizuka was a rare case among rare cases, for she had enough magical potential to complete the rebirth into a full-fledged vampire almost immediately. The new born Vampire gains the necessary knowledge to understand the changes of its body and quickly grows accustomed to living as a vampire. However, he is still bound to the will of his parent vampire and forced to supply him with blood. A vampire can only become a full-fledged Dead Apostle after breaking free from the control of his parent vampire. [6]

Dead Apostles [Term]
The bloodsuckers that make up the vast majority of the subcategory of bloodsuckers known as vampires.
Originally they were meals for the True Ancestors, who would prepare humans in advance for the times when their vampiric impulse became impossible to control. Of course, to keep them from escaping, the True Ancestors sucked their blood and brought them under their control.
These humans who had their blood sucked by the True Ancestors in turn became bloodsuckers themselves. Though, in their case it was mostly as a means of survival. After all, it stands to reason that the apostles serving the extremely long-lived True Ancestors must be possessed of similarly long lives as well.
However. At some point, after sucking the blood of others for such a long time, they began to feel a sense of superiority from the very act of sucking blood itself. They strengthened their abilities, their will, and eventually escaped from the control of the True Ancestors into the world of man, where they repeated the act of drinking blood over and over again to maintain their existences.
This is the origin of the bloodsuckers formed from humans, the Dead Apostles.
The Dead Apostles that escaped the True Ancestors the earliest are known as the 27 Ancestors. Though some of those 27 have been replaced over the generations, there are also those that still reign as Ancestors even now.
In the main story of Tsukihime, not only was Yumizuka Satsuki's transformation into a vampire caused by having her blood sucked by Roa, but she was also lucky (?) enough to have a body blessed with excellent potential, allowing her to complete her rebirth into a bloodsucker in under half a day. It wouldn't be wrong to say her potential as a vampire is close to that of the 27 Dead Apostle Ancestors of old.

Dead Apostle [Term]
Vampires. Basically, humans that have by some means or another been transformed into bloodsuckers.
Originally they were emergency meals prepared by the True Ancestors, to use when they became unable to control their vampiric impulse. In a sense, you could say they were a type of pain-killer.
Humans who had their blood sucked by the True Ancestors would in turn be transfigured into similar bloodsuckers themselves, and forced to spend their now immortal lives serving as the True Ancestors' emergency rations. Without a doubt, they were a "company of the dead".
However, whereas the True Ancestors' desire to drink blood is purely mental, the Dead Apostles need to drink blood to maintain their bodies. Or to put it another way, for the True Ancestors it is merely entertainment, while for the Dead Apostles it is a fundamental aspect of their survival similar to breathing.
At some point, after sucking the blood of others for such a long time, the Dead Apostles began to feel a sense of superiority from the very act of sucking blood itself.
They strengthened their abilities, their will, and eventually escaped from the control of the True Ancestors into the world of man, where they repeated the act of drinking blood over and over again to maintain their existences.
This is the origin of the bloodsuckers formed from humans, the Dead Apostles.
The Dead Apostles that escaped the True Ancestors the earliest are known as the 27 Ancestors. Though some of those 27 have been replaced over the generations, there are also those that still reign as Ancestors even now.

Vampiric Impulses [Term]
The base desire possessed by both True Ancestors and Dead Apostles.
In True Ancestors it is merely a bad habit, but in Dead Apostles it is a means of staying alive.
For those Dead Apostles who used to be human, it is something not entirely dissimilar from an expression of love.

Nrvnqsr Chaos [Person's name • Dead Apostle]
One of the 27 Dead Apostle Ancestors. Alias, Chaos. He uses all the creatures of the earth as familiars. Because of the fact that he is preserving even extinct species, he is also sometimes called Dr. Beast.
Though he had no business in Japan, he was selected as the executor of the True Ancestor hunt proposed by the White Wing Lord, and followed Arcueid to the island nation in order to defeat her.
Dead Apostles who can measure their lives in millennia require a colossal amount of energy. This has nothing to do with their strength – it is merely the compensation required to maintain such a long-lived existence.
Because he is one of these millennium-class Dead Apostles himself, Nrvnqsr's appetite is voracious. It took devouring every single person in a ten story hotel just to satisfy him.
The factors of 666 beasts are swirling around within his body, but it's probably alright just to think of it as him being equipped with 666 familiars. Because this is essentially like having 666 lives, properly speaking he's a Dead Apostle that even a serious Arcueid wouldn't be able to kill.
As one who became a Dead Apostle through sorcery, he has absolutely no interest in territory or building a faction. The only thing he cares about is completing his thesis.
When he was still a human, his name was Fabro Rowan. He was a magus hailing from the Wandering Tomb, located in the northern Sea of Estray, one of the three main branches of the Association.

Vampires [Term]
Monsters that suck human blood. Refers mostly to the Dead Apostles, or those that have become bloodsuckers because of them. Though they are basically unaging and immortal, they require human blood to maintain their flesh. Thus, their immortality is imperfect.
Those that have been turned into vampires by Dead Apostles can operate by their own will, but because their behavioral principles are bound by their parent vampire, it is impossible for them to escape their control. In the event that they successfully attack a human and acquire their blood, the majority of it will be taken by the parent vampire.
Consequently, the child vampire will eventually try to become a parent vampire themselves. After spending decades acclimating to life in the darkness, they will start to threaten the world by creating servants of their very own.
In order to put a stop to this vicious cycle of vampirism, the Church created the Burial Agency – heresy hunters whose aim is the complete extermination of all Dead Apostles.

Vampire [Term]
A general term for those that suck human blood. Refers specifically to the Dead Apostles, or those that have become bloodsuckers because of them.
The vampires in Tsukihime extract human blood to maintain their own flesh. If, during this process, the vampire injects their own blood into their human prey, that human will be unable to peacefully pass away. For a normal person, death will still find them before long regardless. However, on rare occasions, if the victim has high physical potential and the capacity of their soul is excellent, they will remain in the world of the living.
Afterward, their corpse is interred, and left alone for several years. During this time their brain melts, their soul is liberated from the cage of the body, and finally they arise as a kind of living dead called a "ghoul".
As a ghoul, they feed on the corpses sleeping in the graves around them to supplement their own missing flesh, restoring their physical body little by little. After many years of this, they will eventually regain their brain and intelligence. At this stage, they can finally be called a "vampire".
However, although this new vampire can move by their own will, they cannot escape from the rule of their sire's blood. Finally, after spending decades acclimating to life in the darkness, the vampire will begin attacking humans to create servants of their very own, while remaining subservient to the vampire that made them.
In order to obstruct this infinite cycle, the Church created the Burial Agency, Inquisitors that exist to slay Dead Apostles. The Burial Agency's goal is the utter eradication of all vampires, and the sealing of the 27 Ancestors that made them.